This invention relates to methods and apparatus useable in the fields of art and graphics. In particular the preferred embodiment of this invention accurately creates a likeness of a source image such as a photograph onto a destination base such as a painting on canvas.
Over the past centuries mankind has performed drawing and painting for expression of experiences, communication, documentation, and cultural art. In many cases it has been desirable to generate works of art with accurate shapes and accurate perspective representations. The use of gridding or xe2x80x9csquaringxe2x80x9d has become commonplace for beginning art students as well as many professional artists for creating a likeness with accurate perspective and shape. In its linear form, gridding involves subdividing a source image into a number of squares that are individually relatable to destination squares usually of a different size drawn upon the destination base such as a canvas, well known in the field of art. In the initial steps of creating a drawing or painting the general outlines of the image in each square are translated into each corresponding destination base square, sometimes including shading details. Any square within finer detail regions may be subdivided into smaller squares, for example four, in order to facilitate accurate detail portrayal onto the destination base or canvas. The final work of coloring the drawing is then performed, typically without further need of grids in that phase.
Prior art includes a manual process of inking or penciling a grid pattern of equally spaced parallel lines and a pattern of normals, typically forming squares, onto the source image, and calculating and inscribing a corresponding grid pattern upon the destination base or canvas. Drawing a representation of the source image from each cell of the source grid pattern into each corresponding destination base cell allows accurate relative positioning of the contents within the image cell-by-cell, leading to accurate perspective, shape, and three-dimensional representations.
Art and drawing texts, for example, Smith et al, An Introduction to Art Techniques, 1995 describe the process of manual gridding which involves time-consuming measuring and scaling of the original source such as a photograph, and carefully drawing horizontal and vertical grid lines, dividing the desired image area into an array of square cells. The artist then calculates and marks all four edges of the destination base or canvas and later constructs interconnecting graduation lines to form intersecting row and column lines that form a grid pattern of cells to correspond, one-to-one, with the grid previously drawn onto the source image. Typically the destination canvas is larger than the source, but may be of similar or smaller size. The rows and columns are labeled on image grids and canvas grids numerically or alphabetically or both.
The aspect ratio height/width for rectangular canvas shapes must be similar for source and destination in order to provide a full and complete linear representation onto the destination base with respect to the source. Artists are taught to individually measure and draw these grid patterns, which is a laborious, tedious, and time-consuming process that can involve mistakes and require erasures. Oftentimes an artist grids an image, then grids the canvas only to find that his/her desired composition is not correctly covered with the grid pattern, and must erase labels and/or grid lines and construct them again.
Artists are faced with confusing geometric calculations involving image size and shape, canvas size and shape and magnification, particularly in view of the wide variety of canvas sizes and shapes or aspect ratios. Many drawing textbooks suggest enlarging a source picture on a copy machine prior to gridding. All of these variables often cause artists to compromise their composition area and position due to the complexities of gridding and preparing for drawing.
No prior art known to the inventors simplifies the process of composing and drawing a likeness of an image by framing and adjusting the composition on the source while also reducing the complexity of the gridding process of the source and the destination base or canvas in accordance with the present invention.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention provide systems, guides and methods for greatly facilitating the process of gridding a photograph or other image to be painted or drawn. In particular, the system enables art students of all ages to select (a) the precise format to fit on the canvas to be drawn or painted, (b) the precise portion of the image desired to be painted or drawn, and (c) the precise overall composition of the final painting or drawing.
A significant feature of the preferred embodiment of the invention provides a series of graduated grid patterns with the artist selecting the grid pattern corresponding to the size of the canvas to be painted or drawn. For increased gridding detail, the invention provides overlay patterns having a reduced grid size.
Certain of the preferred embodiments of the invention include a series of image-guides, including large image-guides and detail image-guides, a corner-guide, a set of canvas tables, a ruler with a set of scales for marking canvas grids, and in some embodiments, pre-gridded canvases or back-shadowing transparencies for placing behind canvases and illuminating from the back.
Other preferred embodiments of the invention include computer generated graduated image-guides combined with a source image and displayed or printed for artists to use for creating a likeness of the image onto a destination base or canvas.
The series of graduated image-guides are preferably rectangular arrays of rectangular grid cells that are typically identical squares and advantageously pre-printed on clear plastic film or other clear material. The grid patterns consist of, for example, 8 rows by 10 columns forming 80 cells. A bold rectangle outlining the grid array will be called a composition frame and actually represents what could be a frame around the final drawing or painting, but sized at the source image scale. That is, the composition frame of the image-guide substantially represents the frame of the canvas reflected onto the source image. This composition frame allows the artist to easily visualize the final composition on the image that will be drawn onto the canvas without concentrating on the canvas, image grid lines, canvas grid lines, magnifications, and the like. To facilitate this understanding, the image-guide composition frame may appear as a picture frame with representations of wooden molding strips mitered at the comers and/or matte materials or the like.
A significant feature of this invention is that the image to be painted or drawn is configured with a grid pattern identical to the grid pattern drawn or otherwise applied to the canvas, i.e., the invention provides identical grid patterns and number of cells for both the canvas and the image and thereby greatly facilitates the gridding process. Thus, for example, for a predetermined grid array such as 8 rows by 10 columnsxe2x80x94there is no requirement for the user to calculate magnification ratios, analyze candidate grid sizes, and the like. Eight by ten cells in an image-guide relates to eight by ten cells on any size 0.80 aspect ratio canvas, so that each has the same number, eighty cells total. The larger the canvas, the larger the canvas grid dimensions, always resulting in eighty canvas cells. Likewise, the larger or smaller an image, the larger or smaller are its grids and composition frame of the 80 cells of the image-guide. In this way, the eight by ten pattern can be used for any canvas of that aspect ratio, and by choosing an image-guide with its frame of the appropriate size; substantially any practical image size of that aspect ratio may be utilized as well.
For most common canvas sizes it has been found that the dimensions are divisible by a series of only a few canvas grid ruler scales. Substantially all may be generated with multiples of xc2xd inch, ⅝ inch, xc2xe inch, and xe2x85x9e inch so that a simple-to-use canvas ruler can be constructed.
The 0.80 aspect ratio image-guides are useable with other canvas shapes. A corner-guide consisting of two intersecting heavy lines or depictions of picture frame molding, for example, may be used for masking while continuing to create what represents a frame, used for framing the source image when the aspect ratio is not 0.80. The corner-guide is placed at the intersection of the row and column, or fractions thereof, appropriate for a specified canvas aspect ratio.
The series of image-guides of grid size 0.20 through 1.00 inch may include, for example, eight overlay sheets increasing in 26% linear dimension steps. In this way, an artist may compose an image with flexibility for increasing or decreasing its size in 26% steps in order to frame a desired region. For more flexibility, fifteen uniform 12% steps may be provided, or twenty-nine uniform 6% steps, for example.
Since all 0.80 aspect ratio canvas sizes require 8 rows and 10 columns, each such canvas size requires a unique grid pattern. Thus a 16 by 20 inch canvas will require a 2.00 inch grid spacing, and can be manufactured with that pattern and with labels, a further advantage and facet of the present invention. Likewise, for use with the above-described image-guides, a 24 by 30 inch canvas will uniquely require 3.00 inch grid spacing and may be pre-printed. Additionally, other aspect ratio canvas shapes will require unique grid patterns when used with the 8 by 10 shape image-guides. For example a 15 by 20 inch canvas requires 2.0 inch grid spacing and can be pre-printed with 7 xc2xd rows by 10 columns for its 0.75 aspect ratio.